NHL Faces Tough Task of Keeping 4 Nations Momentum Rolling

The NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off was a runaway success, perhaps beyond even the league’s wildest dreams. Now comes the likely harder task of sustaining that momentum. 

The tournament, won by Canada with a dramatic overtime victory over the U.S. in the title game, tapped deeply into national pride and elicited all sorts of strong emotions on both sides of the border. The event even drew admiration from other league commissioners, including Major League Soccer’s Don Garber, who told Front Office Sports that the tournament was “brilliant.”

As regular-season play resumes Saturday, though, some of those feelings won’t be there, and the NHL will again pick up the work of attempting to reduce a roughly 11% ratings decline so far this season.

The NHL, however, does have several upcoming events that will likely help drive fan interest, particularly among more casual ones. Among them:

• The GR8 Chase: Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin is now just 16 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time league record of 894 goals scored—a mark once thought to be untouchable. The 39-year-old Ovechkin, in the midst of another strong season after missing five weeks with a broken fibula, is expected to hit the mark late in the regular season. That milestone will undoubtedly drive widespread coverage among NHL rights holders in both the U.S. and Canada. 
• Rise of the Oilers: Already seen for nearly a decade as one of the NHL’s top players, Oilers superstar Connor McDavid further etched his place in Canadian hockey history by scoring the winning goal in the 4 Nations Face-Off final. His Edmonton team, meanwhile, has been on a tear, is now tied for second in the Western Conference, and is seeking to avenge the Game 7 loss in last year’s Stanley Cup Final. 
• Return of the Red Wings? An Original Six NHL franchise, Detroit has historically been a sizable business driver in the league, and it particularly dominated the NHL in the late 1990s and early 2000s. A painful rebuilding process, however, has left the team out of the postseason since 2016—a streak currently in line to end. 
• Big developments in Utah: The Utah Hockey Club is in the midst of a permanent naming process, with the current finalists including just keeping the current identity, the Mammoth, and the Outlaws. Before that choice is finalized, though, the team is six points out of a playoff spot, and reaching the postseason in the first season after relocating from Arizona would be a further boost toward reestablishing itself in the new home. 
• Going back outdoors: The season’s final outdoor game will happen March 1 between the Red Wings and Blue Jackets at Ohio Stadium, the first such event in Columbus. 
• Panthers Repeat? The Panthers will attempt to become the first back-to-back Stanley Cup winners since the Lightning of 2020 and 2021. 

“It’s very gratifying to see how the tournament has played out and how people have reacted to it, because there was a fair amount of cynicism going into it,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said on ESPN Radio. “What I’ve been gratified by is how well this has been received by not just hockey fans, but sports fans in general. And if you’re a sports fan, and you’ve taken a peek at what’s been going on, maybe we’ve got you now as a hockey fan.”